(Doesn't the US military subsidize post-secondary education if you enlist?)

Yes, and this is a very big incentive for many of the people who sign up. I myself was this close (picture my fingers together) to joining the Army in order to do just that. I ultimately didn't because I wanted to go into the language specialist/analyst position and my recruiter promised me the slot was mine, only I found out that that wasn't the case at all and I could have ended up in a 6 year position doing something I absolutely hated.

The military will even help pay for your education if you sign up for the National Guard or the Reserves, I believe. And if you sign up while you've already got some college, you'll get ahead in rank. If you've had a few semesters of college you can go in (after basic training) as an E3 instead of an E1 (corporal as opposed to a private, in the Army). And if you've graduated college you can go directly to OCS (Officer Candidate School) and become a lieutenant.

"That's an interesting viewpoint supported by many factual references, but you failed to note that I really don't care." - Bailey

In my opinion the US troops are paid workers, they weren't drafted and they aren't unpaid volunteers, they are men and women paid to kill or support those who will be doing the killing.

No disrespect but it's a Good thing(tm) that comment of your is just your opinion because the truth of the matter is in the military...a paid wage is just one of the many benefits offered to attract recruits...a privilege, if you will...
And like all benefits/priviledges
---they can be taken away. Very easily taken away by a commanding officer (for enlisted) or Congress (for officers). The Navy/Marines/Air Force/Army can very well make do free labor if you're a knucklehead. Trust me on this...I've seen it done.

Xero, I think you're simplifying the position a US soldier is in far too greatly. People join the military for a variety of reasons: to get money for college, to get training and a steady job when they don't have much hope of doing that in the civilian world, to travel, and last but not least, because they feel proud to play a part in the defense of our country, or the defense of other countries.

A soldier doesn't know where s/he will end up after they've signed on. Did all of the soldiers who enlisted prior to WWII realize that they were going to be called on to stop a madman from committing some of the worst atrocities in our history? No, but that's what they did. By your logic, they shouldn't have signed up in the first place because they could have been called on to fight a battle that wasn't so clearly polarized along good and evil lines. Soldiers don't get to check a box prior to signing up that says, "I will only do my job when the battle is something that the entire world will support."

And if a soldier decides that he can't do his job because other people in the US feel it isn't justified, they're slitting their own throat. He'll be at worst court martialed and thrown in prison, and at best dishonorably discharged, which means the only job he'll get is working the shake machine at McDonalds for the rest of his life. All of his benefits will be terminated for him and his family.

It's just not as simple a situation, I think, as you make it out to be.

"That's an interesting viewpoint supported by many factual references, but you failed to note that I really don't care." - Bailey

Uh... I live in Canada? Hello? This is like the Petticoat Junction of the terrorist inbound route to the US. All terrorists must frolic through our golden wheat fields, pee in our beer-producing mountain streams, and fraternize with the locals before reaching the great satan.

Oh you mean like the Chaingun systems used on Royal Navy ships from the mid 70s onwards which successfully intercepted quite a few air and waterline based missiles, some got through causing the likes of the Sir Gallahad to burn out and cause several casualtys. Those systems can knock out missiles up to a mile away and the new varients which use the 'metal storm' system are lethally effective, not sure if metal storm has made it past trialling yet tho.

Do not go gently into that good night.
Old age should burn and rage at the close of day.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

I saw the phalanx in action on a discovery channel special. Impressive.

Of course, this is only a minor technicality, as even when "properly elected" into office, a politician has as much chance of not having gotten there via corrupt means as Dubya has of spelling racecar backwards. --UncleJeet

I was going to post more or less what Caryn did, but she beat me too it, damn it.

It is easy to look back now that we're involved in a questionable war and say these troops shouldn't have signed up, but are you honestly advocating that nobody should join the military? That a military isn't required to defend the US against the possibility of foreign invasion, etc? Because if so...stupid...just stupid.

Of course, this is only a minor technicality, as even when "properly elected" into office, a politician has as much chance of not having gotten there via corrupt means as Dubya has of spelling racecar backwards. --UncleJeet

I saw a segment last night about how the US has tightened up the Canadian border. A middle-aged, white couple were turned back because although they had Canadian passports, the border guards wanted things like proof that they owned or rented a home, phone bills, and a bunch of other things that would be a hell of a lot easier to forge than their passports. Truckers were also pissed off at the delays, since it cuts directly into their bottom line.

All this to prevent terrorists from coming in from Canada even though none of the 9-11 suspects did.

Hitting a missile with a gun is significantly simpler than hitting a missile with another missile. Systems like the Phalanx are pretty cool, but they're doing a significantly different, and simpler job than Patriot missiles. Which from what I have read and heard, work better now than they did during the first gulf war, but don't yet really work well.

Yeah, I don't think you'd want a phalanx shredding a warhead filled with bio or chem weapons within a km above a city. That would sort of assist the dispersal. Patriot vaporizes (well, is supposed to) the payload.

Those chainguns are all well and good if you're trying to protect a very small target (like the ship the chaingun is on, or one very close to it). Not so good for protecting much else.

In any case, we're only a couple years away (maybe less, depending upon information nobody knows about due to it being classified) from high-powered lasers as a means to disable missiles (and satellites for that matter).